Katie has been working hard to get ready for a 3 day Zoom Holiday Bible Club. The kids are excited and looking forward to it. I think our adults are excited as well as some get to participate with puppets. Please pray for the power of God to open the hearts of the children to His truth. 

God gave us a good Sunday. We still don't know when the lockdown will end and churches will be allowed to meet in person. I preached the second part of my message from last Sunday on Soul Happiness from Psalm 32.

We are in a cold snap this week as East winds are blowing from the continent. The cold air is coming down out of Siberia. (It's not cold like the Northern US.) Those winds collect moisture over the North Sea and could bring snowfall. So far, we just have a dusting of snow.

We had a zoom visitor tonight. Bruce and I met about a year and a half ago in Edinburgh. He is a believer and was doing some street evangelism. He phoned me today and asked if we were on zoom and joined us tonight. (It was encouraging to see someone visit the church during the lockdown. We have been praying for visitors.)

On Thursdays we are studying Hebrews. Tonight we looked at Hebrews 8, the deficiencies of the Old Covenant and the excellencies of the New Covenant. There was a good spirit and pretty good attendance. Thank you for praying.

Please pray for us to redeem the time during lockdown. We've done several lockdown projects around the house. Most of those are finished. I've enjoyed doing some extra reading. I've recently read Andrew Murray's biography, "Andrew Murray and His Message." I'm currently reading the diary and journal of David Brainard. Wow, they both had an incredible dedication to the will of God and great thirst for God. They also both hazarded their lives for the cause of Christ.

Outreach has not been exciting except for the weather. Last week I put out literature on 3 days. Last Tuesday I could have worn ice skates. This morning it was snowing. Thankfully, the snow melted this past week and the walks are clear. (It is supposed to snow today and tomorrow, so it will remain to be seen if they stay clear.)

Obviously, winter weather and lockdown are not ideal for one on one opportunities to share the Gospel. However, please pray for God to give us divine appointments.

Katie is excited to be planning a 3 day Zoom Holiday Bible Club for the school break next week. (Although schools are currently closed due to lockdown, parents are expected to be schooling their children at home. Next week there is a scheduled school break.) Please pray God's work in the hearts of the children as they attend on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. Please pray as well for our church family as they get involved in leading crafts and puppet ministry.

I'm very thankful for our church family. We have such a good spirit in our times together. Please pray for God's continued blessing in that regard as it is very refreshing.

Our attendance was good today. Everyone was faithful to the services. We did a first today as we had communion on zoom. We already preach, pray, give, and sing online. The covid communion cups made it possible for us to also have the Lord's table. We're thankful, but can not wait until we can meet together. It was a blessing to see one another as we handed off the communion cups.

My wife is busy preparing a 3 day online HBC (Hoiday Bible Club) for the school break the week of 8 February. She even bought a worm puppet that she is super excited about! :) Please pray that God will bless as we seek to do more during a time where it would be easy to do less.

I enjoyed preaching 2/3's of my message this evening. I am preaching on Psalm 32, The Happiness of Holiness.  Thank you for praying for our ministry.

The Lord helped me get out and finish the last of the village of Bilston this morning. Please pray that people will look up the journey videos on our church webpage or our facebook page and be impacted by the Gospel. It was very cold and icy this morning and I only had one brief conversation. My fingers were numb and perhaps my brain was as well as I said, "I am a Baptist Church (instead of Baptist minister.)" I don't think the man noticed. (Whew!)

Tomorrow we have a Scottish missionary prayer time at 11 and we would appreciate your prayers. God's blessed me with some good friends who are faithful to join these prayer times. I look forward to what God is going to do tomorrow in that time.

This week we actually gave our kids a snow day and watched the inauguration. We were blessed with heavy snow on two nights this week and so my outreach was limited by inclement weather.

God gave us a good Sunday. This morning I really enjoyed sharing with our church the "time principle" and the "put off/ put on" principle from the end of Romans 13. This evening I preached a message on Epaphras. This message has impacted me with the need church plants have for intercessory prayer. I entitled the message, "Essential Intercession." I encourage you to listen to it, not because I preached it. But, because this message is vital to the success of all church plants (and established ones.)

God put it on my heart after I again scheduled weekly zoom prayer times with missionary men in Scotland. Please pray for these prayer times beginning this Tuesday at 11 AM. (6AM EST) I'm going to host them until the end of this lockdown.

Thank you for praying for us and our ministry. God is working and we know that it is in answer to your prayers.

The Lord gave me a descent morning for outreach. I was out for just over an hour and put out around 150 flyers. The older part of Bilston is nearly done and just the new housing schemes remain. The area around Loanhead is really building up and there are about 6 housing schemes (subdivisions) being built. Lord willing, I'll finish this village in a couple more outings and move on to the next village, Roslin. 

This morning I was able to share the Gospel briefly with a man and woman who were loading their car. I also had a brief opportunity to speak with a man who was chopping fire wood. Thank you for praying for our outreach.

God's giving us grace to be content with our only means of worshipping together. Praise God for platforms like Zoom that still allow congregating although in cyberspace. What would we do if we didn't have that capability? Even if the government allowed churches to meet, we would likely still be unable to meet because our rental facilities are closed. So - praise God for zoom. :) 

I enjoyed preaching tonight on Romans 4, Abrahamic Faith. If you are interested here is a link to our Thursday night study of Hebrews and last Sundays message on Psalm 23.

God allowed us to get another covid-19 project completed this week. We've tried to utilize our time during lockdown to get house projects completed. This week my boys helped me rip out the laminate floor in my office/guest bedroom. We were able to put down a new floor and God helped it turn out very nice. I'll put a picture below. 

God gave us a very encouraging week and we praise His name! Thank you for praying for our ministry in Scotland.

The weather has been pretty, but not good flyer distribution weather. I tried to get out again this morning and only lasted a short while. I don't mind being cold, it's the numb fingers which have to open the mail slots. :) Please pray for God's blessing despite my feeble attempts.

We are enjoying seeing more snowfall this year than normal. It's not been large amounts, but it has been beautiful. God's creation is glorious!

Scotland and the UK are back in a lockdown. I think I'm right in saying that it is a bit like going through culture shock. I'd summarize it with - "Life as you knew it is changed and there is a sense of apprehension about doing something wrong." Non essential shops are closed and there are stay at home orders. Please pray for grace for our church family to adapt with God's super abundant grace.

One other thing regarding how this is affecting our country, it is normal to struggle with depression during the heart of the winter in Scotland. At the shortest point our day light hours are 7 hours. For my amusement, I looked up where my parents are in Des Moines and it was 9 hours on the same day. My sister in North Carolina had 10 hours of day light. Obviously lockdown on top of dark winter has definitely affected people. Please pray for people to seek God during these difficult times.

God gave us a good day. We had really good attendance in all of our services and there is a great spirit among our church family. This evening I enjoyed preaching on Psalm 23, My Shepherd. Thank you for praying for our ministry.